PUMA Clinic closing after serving over 10,000 young patients

Paediatric Urgent Medical Assessment (PUMA) Clinic in Windsor, Ont., on Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. (Melanie Borrelli, CTV Windsor)

Windsor Regional Hospital is closing the Paediatric Urgent Medical Assessment (PUMA) Clinic after getting through some of the busiest periods of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The clinic opened in August 2021. It served over 10,000 children under the age of 18, with a wide range of possible COVID-19 symptoms, offering them testing, urgent care medical assessments and, where appropriate, COVID-19 vaccinations.

“I am proud of the fact the pediatric program could nimbly set up a rapid assessment clinic, in the midst of a pandemic,” says WRH chief of paediatrics Dr. Sajit Augustine. “This helped to alleviate pressure on our overcrowded Emergency Department.”

The clinic was first housed in a temporary facility adjacent to the Met Campus Emergency Department, with a goal of handling a surge of parents seeking medical assessments for their children – often several dozen per day - during the pandemic while diverting patients away from the Emergency Department to help reduce wait times for treatment.

As numbers declined, the program was moved inside of Met Campus in April 2022, as a temporary paediatric outpatient program for non-emergency patients.

Hospital officials say recent volumes have been five patients or less per day.

With family physician and paediatrician offices once again open to in-person appointments, officials say the time was right to discontinue the program at Met Campus while encouraging parents to seek out community options for children’s care.